Elephant Owner for the Day

Dennis and I arrived in Thailand a couple of days ago and what we have experienced so far here has just been magical. We arrived in Bangkok for the first night and got to explore a little bit the next day before taking a plane up into the northern region of Thailand to a city called Chiang Mai. We checked into our boutique hotel and I cannot tell you how great the service was. We were only paying a little over 60 dollars a night but it felt like we were celebrities staying in the penthouse at a Four Seasons hotel. The people that worked there were so friendly and helpful and would come outside to greet you with your room key in hand. I kept thinking if only more hotels in America were like this what a much more enjoyable experience a vacation could be with such great costumer service.

Besides the great hotel, Dennis and I got to experience one of the most amazing adventures ever in our lives. When we first booked the trip I went on trip advisor looking up "things to do" in Chiang Mai. The number one thing to do was to visit the Patara Elephant farm and take the elephant owner for the day tour. Everyone raved how it was the best thing they did in Thailand and how you didn't want to miss it. After I read the endless amount of positive reviews I knew Dennis and I had to take this tour. Let's just say that we were not at all disappointed. We started off the day learning about the elephant farm and what to expect on our elephant owner for the day adventure. We put our very sexy elephant attire on and got to meet our elephants. My elephants name was Praelia and she was rescued from a circus about 6 months ago. I liked her because she seemed to be an Alpha female of the group. We dominated most hikes when she wasn't getting distracted by the yummy looking shrubbery we passed by. Before we got to ride our elephants we learned all about elephant health and how to check it.  We checked to make sure they were dirty which meant they were sleeping on the ground at night, their ears were flapping (that means they are happy), that their feet were sweating, and their poo was moist and it didn't have too foul of an odor. We also learned some commands for our elephants in Thai. The Thai word"Bon" meant they would open their mouths for us to feed them and "dee dee" meant good girl! We got to feed and clean our elephants which included brushing them off and bringing them into the river to scrub them down. Once our elephants were clean we got to put on our elephant riding pants and attempt to get up on the animal. We watched one of the guides demonstrate and he made it look so easy. I did get up on my first attempt but it was definitely not as easy task. We then preceded to hike through the Chiang Mai country side to a beautiful waterfall for lunch. The lunch they provided was amazing and even included fried chicken drumsticks along with many other famous Thai finger foods. Then we got to do the most incredible thing....swim with our elephants. I never thought in my life that I would ever swim with an elephant. I cannot describe how amazing it was to swim with the biggest mammal on land. After our swim we got back on our elephants and rode back to the farm where we sadly had to say goodbye. Dennis and I had an experience of a life time and I am so thankful that we were able to have this opportunity of owning an elephant for a day.

Swimming with the elephants

We are now at the Chiang Mai airport where we are waiting to get down to our next destination, Phuket. This stint of our trip will probably include some lounging on the beach, a boat trip to various islands, and maybe even seeing some of the famous Thai lady boys. I just know that we will probably to continue to have an incredible vacation.